King County’s Keevies is located about 2 miles west of Black Diamond. It is shown on page 63 of your “Washington Atlas & Gazetteer.” It covers about 5 surface acres, has shallow depths and lies at an elevation of 500 feet. Because of the shallow depths, it becomes very weedy during late spring and summer. I fished this little lake 9 times between August 29, 1985 and April 12, 1987. I found it loaded with small bass with a few very nice sized fish in the mix. On April 10, 1986, I caught a total of 56 bass – mostly small but the biggest was over 3 pounds. My personal best bass from Keevies was a nice 20 inch, 4 pound, 5 ounce bass that hit a Rapala 11 P on April 9, 1987. All of the fishing trips were solo in a canoe except for one when I fished in the canoe with son Donald. Photo below shows Donald with a small Keevies bass that he caught next to the lone stump in the lake. That was a sunny but chilly day in April and we figured the water was probably a tad warmer near the stump. Notice that Don is still wearing a cast from a broken leg. Note: Two of the bass I caught were tagged – as I recall by the University of Washington.

Overview and photo by Bob Johansen